This is an obscure little literary argument that is probably only noticed by authors. Last week Lynn Shepherd, author of literary mysteries set in 19th Century England, wrote a commentary for the Huffington Post in which she said that the author J.K. Rowling should stick with children’s books and leave the area of adult fiction for other writers: “Rowling has no need of either the shelf space or the column inches, but other writers desperately do,” she wrote.

Now, I haven’t read any of Ms. Shepherd’s books and I haven’t read The Casual Vacancy, Rowling’s adult novel. But it seems that it wasn’t among the most brilliant pieces of writing to argue that another author should stop writing, or limit the audiences for which she writes.

On the surface it seems as if Ms. Shepherd doesn’t quite understand writing.

Of course it is entirely possible that i don’t understand it, either. I haven't ever written a complete book. I have a few manuscripts badly in need of rewriting, but nothing that is ready to be published. The few things that I have published had not had any commercial success. You can still buy a small book that I wrote on amazon.com, but Amazon has dropped my author’s page. I am hardly one to have any expertise about they field of writing.

I wouldn’t dream of trying to give J.K. Rowling advice and I’m pretty sure she has no interest in my advice anyway.

I know that there are authors who make their living with the words that they write. And I know that publishing is a tough business with big risks and small profit margins. And I know that there are a lot of good authors who never get published and plenty of good writers who are published, but whose books never receive the acclaim and sales that they deserve. It is a tough business and there is much to the process of marketing and getting books sold that I do not understand.

Still, I find it hard to believe that the primary motivation for any author is seeking fame or fortune. I suspect that there are a lot of easier ways to become known and plenty of easier ways to earn money.

Big dollar authors like Rowling are few and far between. I’m sure that alongside her talent at writing stories that captivate children and adults alike, she had a modicum of good luck and a few lucky breaks along the way.

But I doubt if her motivation in writing a book aimed at a more adult audience was an attempt to corner more of the market.

I think that most writer write because we have to write. Notice how boldly I include myself in that category. But I do consider myself to be a writer despite any evidence of publishing success. The volume of words that I produce and the daily discipline of writing are not the product of a desire to become famous or to make money from my writing. I write because it is a way for me to sort out my reactions to the world. I write because it is a good mental discipline for me. I write because i have things to say and not every thought that I have needs to dominate my conversation with others.

So it is a mystery to me what motivated Lynn Shepherd to write the piece for Huffington Post. At the beginning of her piece she states that a friend told her not to write it. It is clear that it contains ideas that she had discussed with at least that friend and perhaps with others. And at least one friend cautioned her about taking ideas that were dancing in her head and putting them out into the world of blogs. Probably all of us who write blogs need that kind of advice from time to time. Not every idea we have is worth sharing with others.

It appears that is is not going to be a good career move for Shepherd in the short run. Her Amazon ratings are going down with scores of Rowling fans posting one star reviews of Shepherd’s books. Her books weren’t earning five star ratings in the first place. Three stars is more typical for the books she has written. But she has at least eight titles that are selling on Amazon.

She is getting press for her Huffington post. It is mostly negative, but they say that any publicity helps. After all I hadn’t ever heard of her or read any of her books before her post came out on Friday.

Maybe there is a small group of authors who agree with her sentiments. Maybe jealousy and resentment of successful authors is part of what writers feel. But it is a pretty ugly sentiment.

I believe that writing begets writing and reading leads to more reading. I don’t think anyone benefits from fewer books being written or published. I don’t think any author should hold back or refrain from writing or publishing any of their work. Of course there will be garbage that gets published. Of course there will be books that claim truths that are not true. But the marketplace of ideas has a way of sorting out the good from the bad.

I guess Shepherd just wrote what she had to write. It is probably as silly to advise her to refrain from writing her ideas in her blogs as it was for her to advise Rowling to stay away from a particular genre of literature.

I’m thinking, however, that people will remember the Harry Potter books for many years after this little controversy settle down. There are already far more people who know J.K. Rowling than have ever heard of Lynn Shepherd or her Huffington Post piece.

Probably there are more people who have read the Harry Potter books than will ever read the Huffington Post.

So writers will continue to write. Bloggers will continue to blog. And far more words will be forgotten than those that are remembered. I think the poets have it right. Say more with fewer words.

Then again, I’m no poet.

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